Low-Frequency Noise Experiences
In the 2023 highly scientific study in the Netherlands; this Dutch report states that 44% of all noise complaints to health authorities represent low frequency noise complaints. Noise pollution currently constitutes the third largest environmental pollutant in Europe affecting about a quarter of the European population. Common complaints included sleeping difficulties, fatigue, or annoyance and societal consequences were described as adversely affecting housing, work and relationships.
The study outlined the many ways the participants tried to reduce the low frequency noise. The main methods tried being earplugs/earphones, closing/opening windows, and changing the bed position which were rated as unsuccessful by the majority of participants.
This is the report's final conclusion "To conclude, it is evident that affected individuals are suffering and it seems that we currently cannot provide relief or remedy, as we do not understand the fundaments of their condition."
The Dutch Report is entitled "Low-Frequency Noise: Experiences from a Low-Frequency Noise Perceiving Population". It was published by the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. It can be accessed through MDPI, a publisher of open access scientific journals at https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20053916.
Paul Monsted CEO & Managing Director Comment:
“This article is verification that Noizend is on the right track in tackling low-frequency noise.”
Noise and Health
Noise pollution is more than a nuisance. It's a health risk
To say the onus is on the individual to fix their noise exposure is not feasible.
Noise and Health An article from Harvard Medicine
“Airplanes pierce the night. Leaf blowers interrupt fall mornings. Quiet gives way to air conditioners, pounding music, construction equipment, street traffic, barking dogs, sirens.
For half a century, U.S. agencies such as the EPA have deemed noise pollution “a growing danger to the health and welfare of the Nation’s population.” The European Environmental Agency reports that noise ranks second only to air pollution as the environmental exposure most harmful to public health.”
https://magazine.hms.harvard.edu/articles/noise-and-health
Paul Monsted CEO & Managing Director Comment:
“Noise pollution is harmful as recognised by Harvard Medicine. It needs a solution now.”
Why Data Centers Are Loud, and How to Quiet Them Down
Paul Monsted CEO & Managing Director Comment.
“The rush to AI is causing more noise problems.
This is because AI uses an enormous amount of computer power for processing. Increasingly these computers are housed in data centre facilities.
A serious consequence of much larger data centres is an increasing noise problem.”
Why Data Centers Are Loud, and How to Quiet Them Down
“The reason why data centers have a tendency to be loud is simple: The equipment inside them makes a lot of noise when it operates. That equipment includes, in part, IT systems like servers. Although servers aren't typically very loud on an individual basis, hundreds of servers operating in a small space can create noise levels of up to 96 db(A).
At the same time, the ancillary equipment that data centers depend on, like the HVAC systems that cool servers or generators that serve as backup power sources, add to the noise. These systems can be especially noisy on the outside of a data center, contributing to noise pollution in the neighborhoods where data centers are located.”
https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/sustainability/why-data-centers-are-loud-and-how-quiet-them-down
“The science and technology committee of the House of Lords has called on ministers to do more to tackle these pollutants, which it claims are “poorly understood and poorly regulated”.
A total of 130,000 healthy years of life are lost to noise pollution in the UK each year alone, according to data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), with 40% of Britons exposed to unhealthy levels of road traffic noise, said the committee’s chair, Lady King.”
The Guardian Guardian Air & Noise Pollution
Paul Monsted CEO & Managing Director Comment:
“The fact that a committee of the house of Lords stated that hundreds of thousands of years of life are lost in UK alone due to noise pollution is mind blowing. Action is needed now.”
